ELIDA —Columbus Grove knew Ottawa-Glandorf would bring a lot of
defensive pressure at them during their Division III district semi-final
at the Elida Fieldhouse Thursday evening.

But all the practice
one can have doesn’t quite prepare you for what O-G does throughout a
game. Coming at the Bulldogs in waves, the Titans jumped out quickly and
never let up in posting a 52-33 win.

The win moves the Titans
(22-2) into the district finals Saturday, at 3 p.m., against
Liberty-Benton (22-2) at Elida. Liberty-Benton advanced with a 76-38 win
over Lima Central Catholic in the second game at Elida Thursday.
Columbus Grove saw its season end at 13-12.

Ottawa-Glandorf’s
pressure comes in the fullcourt variety and with an equally good
halfcourt man defense. That combination forced 19 Grove turnovers on the
night and when the Bulldogs were able to get off a shot it was usually
very well contested as the Bulldogs were 9-of-25 shooting for the game.

“Playing
O-G, you know what they are going to do. They are going to fullcourt
man you, get after you and challenge you a little bit,” Grove coach
Brian Schroeder said. “You know what’s coming, but trying to stop it and
trying to simulate it in practice and countering it is another thing.
It’s one of those things where they are so athletic and so good at
keeping girls in front of them without fouling, we just weren’t able to
handle the pressure.”

The Titans pressure forced turnovers on two
of the Bulldogs first three possessions. That allowed O-G to take a 4-0
lead on two baskets by Elissa Ellerbrock as the Titans could only
connect on 2-of-7 shots in the early going. Julie Wynn pulled the
Bulldogs within 4-3 with a three point play before the Titans went on a
7-0 run as Danielle Schroeder canned a three-pointer that was followed
by baskets from Anna Bellman and Kylie White. The two teams traded
points the rest of the quarter as O-G was up 16-7 after eight minutes.

Sammi
Stechschulte opened the second quarter scoring for Grove with a basket,
but the Titans went on another 7-0 run as Bellman had five points and
Ellerbrock a basket. The Titans closed out the first half with a 6-4 run
as they were up 29-13 at halftime.

“This has kind of been our
receipe all season, defense and transition baskets,” O-G coach Troy Yant
said. “We beat them by 22 earlier in the season, but they are a much
better team now. We just figured that even with our defensive pressure
this would be a grind it out game and we would just have to consistently
pound at them. I told the girls to play it like a vise, just keep
tightening up the pressure whether you are up or down, we’re just going
to keep pressuring them.”

While the Titans pressure was key, they
also did a good job controlling the boards outrebounding the Bulldogs
31-15 as Ellerbrock had six and White five. The Titans pulled down 17
offensive rebounds in the game to just four for Grove.

“That was
kind of surprising,” Yant said. “They showed zone and we have been
working on if for a couple of weeks and we wanted to make sure we were
not settling for outside shots and it worked both against a man and
zone. We were able to get Anna, Danielle and Elissa to find open seams
and get to the bucket for offensive rebounds and shots.”

“When you
give a great team like O-G second and third chance opportunities, they
are going to make you pay,” Schroeder said. “They didn’t shoot it
exceptionally well, but when they get twice as many shots as you do in a
game, it really doesn’t matter a whole lot.”

While the third
quarter was the Bulldogs best offensively, they scored 12 points, the
Titans wouldn’t let them cut into their lead scoring 17. O-G had an 8-0
run in the quarter as Ellerbrock and Kristen Miller both had four
points.

Ellerbrock and Bellman both had 13 points for the Titans for the game, while Miller, Schroeder and White all had six.

Wynn had nine points and three rebounds for Columbus Grove, while Sydney McCluer had eight points and Stechschulte seven.